Bands and record labels: The exploitation continues...

All that is spoken in this paper is my personal experience and people meet in the music scene. When a band starts following the love and art for music they have to decide the style of music they will play, the message and the audience their music will appeal (pathos). With the basic decisions made then the inspirational part comes. When the music is complete the bands have to make a name for themselves with live shows. At this point is when the members in the band or artist became addicts, for the applause, admiration and respect from the audience. For our own memories, for the fans and to spread the music a record is invaluable and sentimentally, so this is the next step. With many sacrifices the record is completed. For many, our band and other fellow bands our dream is to perform outside our country with no lack of respect to the country that sees you grown. And to achieve that dream you got to have money (by savings or being rich) or via a record deal. And by that dream is where the record labels take advantage from. There are two kinds of artists or bands. The ones that are in for money and girls and the ones that are in for the love of the art of music. Bands that even without pay they travel everywhere to play just spread the music and give the fans what they wanted. This is real love to the art. It’s not just in music; in other arts occur the same situation.

The record label in the search for new bands hired a young person that is involved in the music scene with a good reputation and has almost the same musical background of the bands the label want to sign this person is an A&R which stand for artist and repertoire. Task of an A&R is to represent a face that the bands can trust and to select the songs that a band would record in their cd. The A&R is the first contact that the band have with a label they promise the bands the moon and the stars to make the band to make a verbal agreement or a deal memo this the way they call the agreement. If the band didn’t sign any contract at all they aren’t able to do any other deal because of the agreement that’s who the label takes a position of strength the only solution is to sign or break the band.

Other way that labels screw bands and make them fall in their game is by doing a practice they called the payola which is pay for play. The labels pays huge amounts of money to the radio stations to play only their music to control what the people hear so independent music and labels are marginalized of the radio. This practice is illegal but they hide it by sayings that are promoters that pay that money. The label mentality is to make money at the artist expense a very capitalistic poor reality.

By this point if the and want to continue the relations with the label they has to do what the label told them to do usually is to change their music to mold it their hit making format. The original concept of the band is changed to the fans of the band that would be consider treason and for the band it should be a treason to their values too. Labels tend to make a steady stream of music or product for them. That why radio music is very homogenized and don’t give chance to independent music and independent labels to expose their music

If things happened the way it should be a record label can be useful to the band. So the best decision is to know the demon you’re dealing with, by talking with other bands experiences and then make a rational decision keeping in mind the opinions of the band members and the essence or concept of the band.